Recommondations for non-Chinese dictionary apps

[kiraven]

Hi all,
it does not really fit in this sub forum, but I thought others might have had the same question.

I enjoy using Pleco. The dictionaries are plenty and good, and the app itself as a platform is well thought out and convenient to use. I am learning other languages too. I would like to find equally good dictionary apps for these, but have failed so far.

Based on my experience with Pleco, features of a good app include:

• various (offline) dictionaries available, ability to use both mono- and bilingual dictionaries. I really like the idea of a dictionary app as a platform, in which I then use my dictionaries
• offline recordings / pronunciation
• good support and active development
• cross platform licence - ability to transfer between Android and iOS when changing devices
• easy to use, for example when having to look up a lot of words when reading a book
• good optical presentation of dictionary entries
• example sentences
  
• build in reader or connection to other readers.
• possibly not too expensive, currently some dictionaries charge like 50 $ and offer way less than Pleco's big dictionaries
• in general all features Pleco offers

So far my experience has been that only very few dictionaries can be used offline. Many of them have a clunky interface, are expensive and can not be tested before buying, and can not be transferred between iOS and Android. Overall, the market seems to be domineered by Paragon.

I am especially interested in French-German, French-English and English-German, but would in general be interested what dictionary apps you are using and can recommend. Or, the other way round, are there any you would advise against?

 

[Shun]

Hi kiraven,

to my knowledge, Langenscheidt and PONS offer the highest-quality dictionaries for iOS (Advanced versions about $20). They are offline with offline pronunciations. Each language pair comes as a separate app. You'd have to check with them about migrating between platforms.

The best open source offline dictionary likely is dict.cc+ (includes many language pairs, English-German has about 1.1m word pairs) at about $4, but this only has online pronunciations and few example sentences.

I use dict.cc+ the most, it also allows exporting of your Favorites/history by E-Mail.

 

[kiraven]

Hi Shun,

thanks for your response! Looks like dictionary prices also vary depending on the country of the Apple id / App Store. For me, the Pons Advanced is with 23 € cheaper than I remembered, but Langenscheidt still asks for 50 €…
Both use Paragon Slovoed, but it looks like there is no alternative. I also downloaded Abby Lingvo, which offers a really big number of dictionaries. However, I don't know the publishers behind their dictionaries, so I think I have to do some more searching around to find out if their quality is ok.